Disney Pedophiles

You might think that if there were one single crime that Disney would work aggressively to counter it would be child molestation. But you would be wrong.[1] Of all Disney’s secrets, none is perhaps as dark and troubling as the growing number of active pedophiles in and around the Magic Kingdom. “Disney is having more problems than anyone else,” says [Detective Matt] Irwin, who has cracked several pedophile cases for the Sheriff’s Department. (He also handled the famous 1997 “baby Jasmine” case, in which a newborn was abandoned in a Magic Kingdom [toilet].)[2]

While it’s difficult to know just who is working at Disney, copies of the company’s security records reveal that numerous employees have arrests for a variety of sex crimes.[3] Even repeat sex-crime offenders with criminal records have operated at Disney for years, apparently with the company’s knowledge.[4] Security checks would undoubtedly be a good idea since a surprising number of Disney employees have serious criminal records that are either unknown or ignored by Disney management.[5]

Detective Eric Fortinberry has a unique perspective on all of this, having both investigated sex crimes at Disney and worked at the park itself. “They probably don’t want the criminal checks because it would keep employees out that normally would get through,” he says. And beyond security background checks,[i] if Disney acted like any other theme park in Central Florida and cooperated with local law enforcement efforts, this would most likely lead to more arrests. Until it does the chances will remain quite low that these child molesters will be caught.

“When they advertise their attractions as a safe haven for children, the least they can do is make a minimal effort to protect those children they are inviting onto their property,” [former Orange County, Florida, prosecutor] Michael Gibbons says. “Right now [1998] there are so many incentives for pedophiles to work at Disney.”[6]

“Disney World is the greatest attraction in the world for children and pedophiles,” says Professor Jack Enter, a criminology expert at North Georgia College.[7] Disney is a magnet for pedophiles, who prowl in search of kids. This is not a problem unique to Disney. Theme parks and many other businesses that attract kids also attract abusers.[8]

The chance to work at Disney attracts people like John Mushacke. On March 15, 1995, Orange County Sheriff’s Deputies arrested the Disney employee on three felony charges: fondling a child, possession of child pornography, and procuring child pornography. Mushacke was charged with fondling a thirteen-year-old girl repeatedly while he worked at Disney. He pled guilty to five counts.[9]

[redacted][10] [redacted][11] [redacted][12]

Christopher Labor is a sexual predator who, as an anonymous Disney employee, used his Magic Kingdom connection to entice young boys. “He used Disney stuff to curry favor with [a] boy,” says Irwin. “He gave him hats, T-shirts, and other paraphernalia. He used his employee card to buy the gifts at a discount. Disney gifts are good at helping to gain trust.”

The problem is that at…Disney there is, once again, a lot more concern with covering up the problem than with protecting kids. One result is that some of Disney’s pedophiles — unlike Labor, a transportation supervisor — are positioned in high-profile jobs dealing with children.[13]

Victor Salva was said to be blessed “with a gift for getting inside the heads of children.” Although Disney…herald[ed] its new director, the Mouse failed to mention that he was also a five-time felon.[14] Salva began his filmmaking career directing short amateur movies in the San Francisco area. [He] kept himself busy working with children. He worked at a day-care center, was involved in Big Brothers programs, and even wrote children’s books.[15]

In late October 1995 Disney’s Hollywood Pictures was screening its new motion picture,…Powder, the story of a misunderstood albino teenager. After the screening, as all the glitterati made their way out of the theater,…Disney Studios Chairman [Joe] Roth was confronted by disturbing placards. “Victor Salva: Writer, Director, Child Molester,” read one. “Support the Victim, not the Victimizer,” read another. The young…man leading protesters that night was Nathan Winters, a one-time child actor who had been sexually abused by Victor Salva.[16]

In 1988 [Salva] confessed to having [abused the] 12-year-old…Winters.[17] Horrified, Rebecca [Winters, Nathan’s mother], immediately pulled Nathan from the movie. Francis Ford Coppola, however, was not sympathetic. Coppola’s company had a significant financial stake in the film, and according to Rebecca Winters, he threatened to sue her for breach of contract unless she returned Nathan to the set at once. Winters contacted the police. Detectives interviewed Nathan, and, feeling they had sufficient probable cause, raided Salva’s home. They found two explicit videos and an album of still photos. One video had extensive footage of Salva and Nathan. The other displayed young men taking showers. “We suspected there were other victims besides Nathan,” says Sergeant Gary Primavera, who led the raid, “but we could never prove it.”

Salva eventually pled guilty to[18]…five counts of sexual misconduct.[19] Salva confessed to having sex with the child while directing him in a low-budget horror film called “Clownhouse.” He pleaded guilty to charges of lewd and lascivious conduct, oral copulation with a person under 14 and procuring a child for pornography.[20] Salva was convicted on two felony counts of lewd and lascivious conduct and [another charge of abusing] a person under fourteen. He was convicted on three counts of procuring a child for pornography.[21]

According to Sergeant Primavera, “Victor has every characteristic of a pedophile that I know of, and I’ve worked with enough of them.” Uncharacteristically, however, “[t]here was no remorse. The only sadness on Victor’s part was that he got caught.”

Victor Salva served fifteen months of a three-year sentence in state prison. When he got out of jail, Salva sent a completed script to several studios, including Disney. Roger Birnbaum, the head of Caravan Pictures, which develops films for Disney, read it and was so impressed that he immediately bought the script and gave Salva the director’s job. Disney even gave Salva $10 million to produce Powder.[22]

Top executives at Disney…appeared startled and embarrassed by the disclosure. But they insisted Mr. Salva had paid his debt to society.[23] “He paid for his crime; he paid his debt to society,” said Roger Birnbaum, expressing no regrets about Disney’s relationship with a convicted child molester. Apparently,…convicted pedophiles are allowed to keep working regardless of the risks to young actors.

The Los Angeles Times, Daily Variety, CNN, and the Associated Press all ran major stories.[24] And it hasn’t been just a few film critics raising questions about the film. Experts in pedophilia are equally disturbed by the imagery in Powder.[25] According to Sandra Baker, executive director of the Child and Family Institute in Sacramento, Calif., child molesters think “they are more perceptive and beautiful than other people. They feel misunderstood.” Salva’s having made Powder a pale, hairless, sensitive outcast fits “what pedophiles can relate to,” she adds. “They want their victims to be hairless usually. They don’t want adult sex characteristics.”

L.A. family therapist Lisa Hacker notes that when a teacher (Jeff Glodblum) tells Powder that he’s “never had better sex” since being touched by him, and then later strokes his bald head the conduct is very intimate and inappropriate.”[26]

Disney refused to comment on the controversy surrounding the film.[27] Despite the controversy, Disney continues to distribute Powder, which offers a pedophile’s view of the world.[28] Disney has never issued a statement of regret about employing Victor Salva or distributing Powder.[29]

Patrick J. Naughton, an executive vice president with [Infoseek], was arrested by FBI agents [16 September 1999][30]…when the teen-age girl he had arranged to meet at a pier in Santa Monica, Calif., turned out to be an undercover agent with law enforcement.[31] Officials at Infoseek, a search engine owned by Disney’s Go Network, declined to comment on the charges, although the company released a prepared statement that said Naughton “is no longer an employee of InfoSeek.”[32] He later resolved the case in plea bargain with the U. S. Attorneys office in exchange for working for the FBI for a year to develop software to assist them in their online investigations.[33]

[i] All new employees at Walt Disney World are now subject to background checks, a policy quietly implemented after a Disney worker [with a fairly extensive criminal background] was arrested in the rape of a teen-age tourist. The expansion of background checks also comes as a book critical of park security went to press. Peter Schweizer, an author of Disney: The Mouse Betrayed, said the announcement is more than coincidence. A Disney spokesman said the book had nothing to do with the change. Thats something weve kicked around for a long time, said spokesman Bill Warren.
 The Associated Press, Disney Implements Background Checks, 18 Oct 1998, at http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/1555/Disney6.html.